Now might be a good time to explain Edam's living situation at his summer job a little better. Most residents stayed in tents. There were very few buildings only the higher-ups like camp director and nurse and Edam got to stay in cabins. Edam hated his cabin. It was out of the way, smelled bad and even leaked in the rain. Now Edam didn't have a problem with rain, but if he was inside he was under the firm belief that he shouldn't be getting wet. He'd rather stay in a tent. At least then it would have made sense that he'd get a little damp.
Usually he slept outside on the small deck that hung off the side of the cabin. But for some reason that night he elected to sleep inside.
He tossed and turned, not comfortable in his bed for a majority of the night. Then in the early hours of morning he was roused from his fitful sleep by a light but persistent scratching on his front door.
Edam stumbled out of bed, making his way over to the door. It took him two tries to actually open the door in his sleepy haze. When it was finally open a bobcat burst into his room.
"Geez, you bastard! Took you long enough to open the damn door," the cat hissed, looking at him with angry eyes.
Edam was still trying to figure out why there was a bobcat in his cabin. "Why are you here?" he yawned.
"I've been looking for you forever. Well not me, really, Harvey's bear friend's been fuckin' looking."
Edam's brow crinkled in confusion. He never even met Harvey's bear friend. Harvey knew where he lived, why wouldn't he come himself. He asked the cat that very question.
The cat hesitated before looking away from Edam and saying in an evasive manner, "something happened."
Edam's heart leapt to his throat. It felt like ice water had been dumped on his head and he suddenly felt wide awake.
He rushed around his cabin to find something to wear outside. Edam fumbled to get his coat on and crammed his shoes on as he was running out the door. He didn't bother to tie them, that would have taken too long. The cat was already leading the way to wherever Harvey was.
To Edam's surprise they stayed on one of the main camp roads for a while. He had expected to go tromping off into the woods straight away. Right when the cat veered off into the woods Edam ran into something hard. Brushing it off he quickly went to follow the bobcat but was caught around the arm. Apparently that something he ran into was a someone because that was definitely a hand around his bicep. "Jesus, Edam, where's the fire?" and it was Jerry.
Edam tried to shake off Jerry's hand, to pull away and keep running after the cat. But Jerry wouldn't let him go. He took one look at Edam's face and knew something was majorly wrong. The man looked terrified. "What's wrong?" Jerry asked seriously.
Edam tugged harder to free his arm, "I need to help Harvey."
Well damn. That wasn't the answer Jerry was expecting. Edam was frantic over trying to help some guy.
"Who's Harvey?" Jerry asked.
Edam just pulled at his arm again, in no state to answer the question. And he was wasting precious time. For all he knew Harvey was hurt, trapped somewhere. He could even be dying.
Making up his mind Jerry drawled, "Well, guess I have no choice but to go with you." Edam was so distracted at the moment he would have agreed with anything if it meant getting to Harvey faster.
Jerry finally let him go and Edam shot off into the woods, the other man right behind him.
But there was a problem. Edam had lost sight of the cat. "Where are you?" he called.
"Here," the cat answered jumping from a tree.
"He's coming too," Edam told the cat while pointing at Jerry.
Okay… Jerry was confused. A freaking cat jumped from a tree and Edam was talking to it. Like really talking. And it looked like the bobcat knew what was being said. It was a real Lassie moment.
The cat appeared to motion for Edam to follow and they began barreling their way through to woods. Edam stopped suddenly and Jerry almost ran into him.
"Jesus," he wheezed out.
There in front of him was not one but two black bears. Which was two more than he ever hoped to see while out in the middle of nowhere.
The smaller of the two was pacing back and forth letting out little clipped barking noises. It sounded distressed. And the larger one was whining in pain. Jerry could see its foot was in a metal clamp-like trap.
Edam stepped forward eyes transfixed on his friend. He had to get that trap off Harvey's leg and fast. The smaller bear growled in warning.
Jerry's eyes widened at the hostile animal. He was no expert, but it sounded like the bear wanted them to back off. "I don't think this is a good idea," Jerry grabbed at the groundkeeper's arm but his grip was shrugged off. He watched in apprehension as Edam continued forward.
Apprehension turned to horror when the smaller bear let out a ferocious growl and went for Edam with a mighty paw. It didn't take Jerry too long to realize he could do absolutely nothing to stop the attack from happening. Edam was out of reach and the bear was coming faster than Jerry knew he could move. And with the way the bear was behaving, once it got a hold of Edam it wasn't going to let go until the thing threatening it was no longer a threat. Unless something happened in the next millisecond he was sure this bear would attack Edam.
And Edam was going to die.
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